Investigate, Prosecute Gun Death

Five-year-old Rasheem Grant is dead, a victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. The young boy found a gun at his home in Plantation, pointed it at himself and pulled the trigger.

His mother, Charmaine Dennis, who has a live-in boyfriend, says she doesn't know how her son came into possession of the loaded firearm.

But someone knows, and it is up to the police to determine who that is. Then it is up to prosecutors to file charges under the provisions of a 1989 Florida statute that makes adults criminally responsible when death or injury occur because children find unsecured firearms lying around the house.

The statute is not enforced very often. The tragedy of a child dying or being crippled by injury in itself is punishment for an adult, who must bear the guilt of being responsible for a death or injury for the rest of his life. Understandably, prosecutors are reluctant to add to a family's misery by sending away to jail one of its breadwinners.

Some type of punishment by the state, however, is necessary if the statute is to have its full deterrent effect. If adults know they will be going to jail, or at the very least be sentenced to house arrest, they might be more inclined to follow the law, and to purchase trigger locks or secure storage boxes for their weapons.

Strict licensing of handgun owners might also help prevent accidental shootings by children, and other gun tragedies. At the very least, anyone obtaining a license would have to demonstrate an understanding of Florida law and a knowledge of safe gun handling procedures.

Gun licensing won't keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, but it might deter some honest but irresponsible people from owning firearms.